Up to today, an instant messaging (IM) platform has been accepted by most netizens and become an indispensable communications means of users. Basic data content on the IM platform is a user group that a user is concerned about and in direct instant-messaging contact with. Generally, the group is referred to as “buddies” of the user. As a time of use of the IM platform by a user for communication increases, the user accumulates a great number of buddies. These buddies are collected into a buddy list of the user and presented to the user in a form of a buddy list on an IM terminal. For an IM system, the place and importance of buddies in the buddy list are the same and indiscriminate; however, for the user, attention paid to each buddy may be different, and moreover, perspectives to which attention is paid are also different, which affect a buddy classification form of the user.
Therefore, based on a buddy list, in combination with the attention that a user pays to a buddy, the concept of buddy grouping is developed on an existing IM platform. That is, the user may classify the buddy list into several categories and specify a grouping attribute for each buddy according to the will of the user. Groups customized by the user and buddies in each group are recorded in a database of a server. When the user logs in to an IM client, an IM terminal synchronizes grouping information with the server automatically. Therefore, when the user logs in by using different terminals in different locations and scenarios, grouping consistency can be maintained.
Currently, with the development of mobile terminal technologies and fast establishment of a relationship chain of contacts in instant messaging software, a buddy list becomes overcrowded in an accumulation process of the relationship chain of contacts, thereby causing many problems in buddy management and operations. In addition, conventional buddy lists are all presented in a combination form of a vertical list and text, which is suitable for a PC operation. However, as mobile terminal technologies and devices develop rapidly, due to features of a mobile scenario, in a conventional method, there must be some limitations to adaptation and operation of an intelligent mobile terminal. A most prominent manifestation is that, due to low recognition of text, an operation cost and operation difficulty are relatively high when a text list form that is originally suitable for a PC operation is used in a mobile scenario.